QUICK!
 

...What's the radius of the Earth?


No fair figuring it out based on other stuff, or googling it or otherwise looking the value up somewhere. I want people who 'just know'--the way I know the fastest route to the local bowling alley.


For those of you who just know (and I know you're out there, King of the Geeks [Nay, Queen of the Geeks, obviously]) of what POSSIBLE use is this factoid to you?

The average distance from the center to the surface!

Nice try. It has to be an actual value.

Oh, but don't worry HM. I've always felt that you were a MASSIVE black hole of a geek! and your rhapsodizing about calculus only seals the deal.

6378km, equatorial. Why do you ask?
(Full disclosure: I use this value at work.)

I knew the Geek Overlord would turn out to be a Geek Goddess! Well, good for you, Pie. Now---second half of the Q---HOW is this knowledge useful to you in your work?

I'm a Rocket Scientist.

Looks and brains. What a woman!

Guilty as charged, but alas, numbers are my blind spot. As I mentioned in the calculus thread...

25000 miles = 2*3.14*r ~=
12500 miles = 3.14*r ~=
6000 miles ~= r

sorry, I almost always do the math. I don't keep the radius stored next to the route to the bowling alley because I use it much more infrequently than I do the circumference, and I remember the calculation because it has a permanently reserved spot in my memory as a tool.

Sorry I don't rate Geek Overlord. That's probably because I'm half Nerd on my Father's side.

Pie:

1 -- Congratulations.

2 -- Quick (like a bunny), what point on the earth's surface is furthest from the center of the earth? **spoiler** Chimborazo in the Andes

The highest mountain? Everest?

I'm with Bri. Though I'm thinking it's something more complicated...

Maybe Voyager 1? Wasn't there some dirt on her?

Another QUICK!

if you saw a child being dragged by an adult, the child screaming, "NO! You are not my (mother)/father"/whatever and you are on a busy street with loads of people who are ignoring the childe---what would you do?

Quick now.

reason I ask--so many witnesses to a child abduction say, "well, I DID see a little girl struggling against a man...screaming 'help'. I just thought it was a form of play." or similar.

I think there is a typo in that last calculation.